The Case of the Stolen Artifact
Chapter 13
1
Tracy Oliver landed in Rome, Italy. She had not been this excited in a long time. In fact, she had been rather depressed. After the jury failed to acquit her in the murder of her husband, she had been hounded by the press. * Whispers continued regarding the possibility she got away with murdering her husband. It had become impossible for her to live with it anymore and she attempted to commit suicide. Robert Ironside stepped in and helped to prove she had not murdered her husband. He, in fact, committed suicide when he learned he had a terminal condition and would die soon. He shot himself and frame Tracy for what the police decided was murder.
She had eaten dinner with Robert Ironside afterwards, reminding her of an evening so many years before she had spent with him, after he had saved her life as a rookie police officer. Unfortunately, it once again turned out to be the only dinner date the two of them had. Tracy had hoped something would develop between them. Yet, her schedule and his kept that from happening. After many months of not hearing from him she gave up and fell into a depression.
When she had received a call from what she had believed was a member of the police department, she thought she was finally going to see Robert Ironside. Despite having heard he was seeing a woman, Tracy had hoped he had wanted to see her again. She had been extremely disappointed when she got there, and he was not even at the museum.
When she received the phone call about the villa being for sale she had previously tried to purchase, she had been excited. It would get her out of the country and her mind off Robert Ironside. If the sale was completed and she was actually able to purchase the property, she would seriously consider moving to Rome and leave San Francisco and Robert Ironside for good.
The plane taxied to a stop. Tracy pulled her suitcase from the overhead compartment. As she waited for her turn to depart the plane, her mind wandered back to Robert Ironside. Why did Bob invite her to the museum and then not be there when she arrived? She could not help it, something about that just bothered her. He had not even called to explain why he wasn't there. It was as if he had not invited her in the first place.
As she left the plane, she spotted Nino Martini. He came directly to her. Speaking fluent English, he smiled and said, "Mrs. Oliver, I am so happy you could make it. I put off another buyer so you would have the first opportunity. Let us go directly to the villa. If all is in order and you are still happy with it, we will arrange to have everything finalized."
"That will be fine," Tracy said. "I am anxious to own the villa because I am considering moving here to Rome permanently.
"Wonderful! In that case, let us get started." Nino took her arm and led her out of the airport to an awaiting limousine. When Nino opened the door, Tracy bent down to slip inside. She hesitated when she saw two rather rough looking men in the vehicle. As she began to back away, she felt a gun pressed into her side.
"Get in, Mrs. Oliver."
She turned to see Nino Marini holding a silenced weapon on her. "What is this all about?"
"Get in and I will tell you." He waved the gun near his waist. "You really don't have a choice, Mrs. Oliver."
Tracy looked down at the gun. He was correct. She didn't have a choice. She bent down and slid into the limo. Nino slid in next to her. As soon as the door shut, the driver pulled the car away from the airport. Silence prevailed for the longest time until Tracy could stand it no longer.
Looking over at Nino, she demanded, "What do you intend to do with me?"
"If you behave, absolutely nothing. You see, Mrs. Oliver, someone wants you out of commission for a while."
"Why? Who could possibly want to fly me half way around the world? No one here would need to..." Robert Ironside entered her mind once again. He did not ask her to the museum. Someone wanted her there for a reason. The call to come to Rome, and now being forced into this limo, added up to one thing. Someone wanted her out of San Francisco. Unfortunately, she had no idea why. "Who wanted me out of the country?"
"Mrs. Oliver, I would suggest you not ask any more questions. You will be made comfortable, and when it is all over you will be released," Nino assured her.
"When what is all over?" Tracy suspected whatever it was, it had to do with Robert Ironside.
"No questions, Mrs. Oliver, if you want to come out of this alive." Nino turned his attention away from her. Questions or not, he had been paid a great deal of money to see Tracy Oliver would never leave Italy. Nino did not understand why his employer did not kill her right now.
2
Ironside woke up the next morning to the sound of a guitar playing down the hall. Who in the blazes was making all that noise? "Mark!" he called out. A minute later Mark Sanger entered his room.
"What is it, Chief?" Mark asked. When Mark first came to work for Ironside, he did most everything for him. That was when he first had been shot and found out he would never walk again. Mark got him up and helped him get dressed. At night, he would reverse the process. Over the years, the chief had become much more self sufficient. Today, he did most things for himself with the exception of the cooking and driving his van.
"Where is that flaming noise coming from?" Ironside growled.
"Down the hall. It is coming from the room where Matlock and McMasters are staying. Someone is playing a guitar."
Ironside had sat through a lecture the night before from Ben Matlock who read him the riot act about being involved in any part of the Internal Investigation or the murder trial of Alexandra Hughes. His first impression of Ben Matlock was that there could be no way the man could possibly be as successful as Perry. To the eye, the man looked like an unmade bed. Ironside had nothing against the southern swagger; Matlock just did not give him the impression of a Perry Mason.
Ironside had sat in his wheelchair and listened to Matlock order him around. Perry had intervened when he figured Bob was about to blow up. He had suggested they wait until morning as it was getting late.
Ironside had not slept well. He did not care for leaving his fate in the hands of Ben Matlock. The detective would have much preferred Perry representing him. Mason may take too long in the bathroom, but at least he didn't play a guitar at five o'clock in the morning. It was bad enough Matlock was telling him what to do and kept him up late, but then he had to wake him early.
The former chief of detectives got himself out of bed and into his wheelchair after putting on a robe. Since Matlock kept him from taking a nice hot bath the night before, nothing would refresh him better than a nice hot shower. Ironside wheeled out of the room that his staff had converted into a bedroom for him some time ago. He shouted out," Mark, put on some coffee! Better make it two pots!" With three extra people in his office along with Eve, Ed and Mark, he was sure they would have to order extra coffee the next time he sent Mark grocery shopping.
When he arrived at the bathroom door, he reached for the knob. It was locked. He knew instantly who was in there. "Perry, come on, you are not the only one that wants to take a shower!"
"I'll be out in a minute," Mason shouted from the other side of the door.
Ironside wheeled back to the table. He took one look at his morning paper. It was completely torn apart. Not one section was together. Ed and Eve were not in yet and Mark knew better than to mess with his paper. He began putting it back together when Della entered the main room fully dressed. He marveled at the woman that not only knew how to dress, but was not afraid to act like a woman.
Della kissed his cheek. "Good morning, Robert."
"Good morning, Della," he said, returning the greeting.
A moment later, Perry came out of the shower, his hair tousled and wet, his feet bare and his robe wrapped tightly around him. Della stared at the lawyer. All she could think was Perry never looked sexier when he came out of a shower.
"It is about time," Ironside said as he began to wheel towards the bathroom. Before he could get up the ramp, the door to the office opened and Ben Matlock entered in a bathrobe. He headed for the bathroom. When he saw everyone, he smiled. "Good morning! Nothing like a hot shower in the morning." He went into the bathroom and closed the door. They heard the lock turn.
Ironside stared at the bathroom door. Perry looked at Della, who was smiling. His face turned into a grin as both of them saw the look on Ironside's face.
"Bob, have a cup of coffee. He shouldn't be long," Perry said.
Mark walked over to the table and put a pot of coffee on the table and several mugs bearing the letters SFPD. As Mark poured Della a cup of coffee, Ironside was staring at the table. "This is...or was my morning paper."
Perry gathered the paper, not putting it in any particular order and straightened it out. He set it down in front of his brother. Ironside looked at it. "Section D is on the top. It is supposed to be section A. If an article completes on another page, how in the blazes am I supposed to find the second half."
Mason grinned. "Don't ask me, you are the detective here."
Ironside gave him a look that could kill. The door opened and Conrad McMasters came in. He walked over to the table. "I sure hope your coffee is better than Ben's. He picked up the cup that Mark had poured for Ironside and began drinking it. "Actually, it is better than Ben's. "Is that this morning's paper?" He grabbed it and began separating the sections. "Looks like Ben has already read it."
Ironside looked up at his brother. Perry was grinning. "Well, I better get dressed. Della and I are meeting Paul for breakfast to get started." He poured himself a cup of coffee and headed back to the room they had been assigned.
Mark put breakfast on the table in front of his boss, who completely finished it and Matlock still had not come out of the bathroom. The door opened as Ironside watched Ed and Eve come down the ramp. Eve took one look at their boss in his pajamas and robe. She went to him and felt his forehead. "Are you sick?"
The chief reached up and removed her hand from his forehead. "I am fine, Eve."
"Then why aren't you dressed?" she asked.
Matlock finally came out of the bathroom. Ironside glanced over at the lawyer, "Getting into a bathroom around here would be much like sharing one with you," he told Eve. That brought a chuckle from Ed and Mark.
Ed poured a cup of coffee for himself and one for Eve. The pot Mark set on the table was not very big. There was not much left.
Ben came down the ramp in his bathrobe. "Good, you're up! I'll get dressed and we'll get started. You better read the article in the paper. He grabbed a mug, poured the last of the coffee and left the office for his and Conrad's room.
Ironside picked up the coffee pot and turned it upside down. A couple drops of coffee trickled out onto the table. He looked up at Mark. "Would you put another pot on please, Mark."
"Ah...well, I have not had a chance to go grocery shopping. That was the last of the coffee. I'll get some today."
Della could not keep from laughing when she saw the look on Robert's face.
2
Murray Simmons hung up the phone from a call to Ironside's office. He had informed the chief he would be in shortly to talk to him. After being informed his lawyer would be there, Murray knew he was about to meet the famous Perry Mason. Everyone by now knew the chief's brother was the famous attorney from Los Angeles. Good for him, he was glad to see he was not going to allow the mayor, the city council or Internal Affairs to use him as a scapegoat.
Simmons looked at his watch. His partner in this investigation had not arrived yet. Murray was not used to having a partner. He investigated cases alone and always had. If he needed help, the detectives he chose worked for him, not with him. He didn't like it. Sergeant Terry Cox was one of the very few who did not like Bob Ironside. The reasons were not valid, but that meant nothing to the sergeant. He had wanted either Ed's or Eve's job, and had filed complaints when he did not get them. Cox didn't realize the reason Ironside would never choose him was because he had no loyalty to begin with and was just trying to use Ironside to get ahead in the department. Bob knew a weasel when he spotted one. Besides, the former chief of detectives wanted the best in his office, and that certainly did not include Terry Cox.
Besides having to do this ridiculous investigation of the most honest cop he had ever had the pleasure of working with, Murray had to babysit Sergeant Cox. There was no way he was going to allow him to manufacture evidence against Ironside. He wasn't sure if Cox would actually do it, but he was not going to rule out the possibility."
There was a knock on his door. He wrinkled his forehead, pulling back the hairline of his snow-white hair. Murray was already past retirement age and still he was a cop. The thought of retirement sicken him, especially since he had lost his wife five years ago. They had planned to travel when he retired from the department. Unfortunately, that was not to be. She had developed cancer of the liver and only lived a few months afterwards.
Murray remembered the kindness Bob Ironside had displayed towards him. Inviting him to dinner at his office-residence at least once a week, going to the race track and betting on the horses became a regular routine. It brought a smile to his face thinking of all the bragging Bob did about picking the winning horses, yet he still lost most of the time. They certainly had some good times over the years." "The door is open," Murray shouted at who he knew would be Terry Cox on the other side."
Sergeant Terry Cox opened the door and came in. "Hi Murray."
"You're late," Simmons said.
"Couldn't be helped. I stopped by the museum to set up time we could get in there."
"You what?" Murray just about exploded.
"You heard me. We have to make sure Ironside didn't help Hughes with this robbery."
"Now, you listen to me, you..." Murray stopped himself before he said something he regretted. "I am in charge of this investigation, not you. You will do what I tell you to do and when I tell you to do it. Nothing more, nothing less."
Cox appeared to be rather cocky. "The mayor put me on this investigation to counter what may be your bias for Ironside. I don't take orders from you. I am your partner. We agree on what to do. I have no intentions of allowing you to sweep Ironside's wrong doing under the rug. He will pay for the laws he has broken." Murray could hardly control his anger. "You fool. You don't go into an investigation figuring the man is guilty. You collect the facts. You are so blinded by your hatred of Bob Ironside that you have already decided he is guilty. I got news for you. He is not guilty. We will find nothing. This investigation is nothing but cover for a cowardly mayor."
"So you are going into the investigation figuring the man is innocence. Where is that different than me going in figuring he is guilty? Ironside has never been the saint everyone makes him out to be. He has been lucky to be in the right place at the right time. As far as never doing anything wrong, he was feeding information to the mob. He got away with that one."
"First of all everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but you could care less about that. He framed himself in order to get the truth out of the man that accused him and to find out who the inside man was.* It was proven he did nothing wrong. He took a chance doing it the way he did in order to catch the culprit.
"Just proof that anything Ironside does illegally gets swept under the rug. I am not going to let that happen this time, Murray. If he is guilty of anything at all, we are going to nail him."
"You aren't here to investigate Bob. You are here to hang him out to dry. I am warning you, Cox, if you even try, I will have you up on charges and you will be the one that is run out of the police department. You remember one thing, Mister. I out rank you. You will take orders from me or you're done. Not the mayor, the city council or anyone else can get around the chain of command around here and you know it."
Sergeant Cox said nothing. Unfortunately, what Murray said was true. He had to follow the chain of command. Even when partnered, the ranking officer was the boss. He had wanted to see how far he could push Murray Simmons, and now he knew. Terry would have to do a lot of investigating on his own with out Murray's knowledge. He certainly had no intentions of holding Ironside to account.
"Do you understand?" Murray snarled.
"I get it. You don't have any intentions of doing a real investigation. Well, I got news for you, Lieutenant, if you try and sweep Ironside's wrong doing under the rug, I will go to the press. Do you understand?"
Murray shook his head. "Try it and you will be out of a job. I will see to it. There will be nothing to find and I suggest when we find nothing, you accept that. Others have tried going to the press when they didn't like departmental policy and they no longer work here."
Terry figured he had pushed Murray as far as he dared for now. "So when are we going to see Ironside?"
"Right now. I'll do the talking. You keep your mouth shut, Sergeant." Murray put his suit coat jacket on and headed for the door.
Sergeant Cox smiled. Fat chance he was going to keep his mouth shut.
3
Paul Drake walked into the Hard Knox Cafe. He immediately spotted Perry and Della who had taken a table in the back. They usually picked a table that was secluded in order to minimize eavesdropping, or curious people coming up to them. Paul headed directly for them. When he reached the table, he pulled out a chair and dropped rather heavily into it.
"The morning is just beginning, Paul," Della said.
"Maybe for the two of you, but I have been up and working," Drake said.
The waitress approached their table. They dropped the conversation as she asked Mason if anyone else would be joining them. Perry told her no and ordered breakfast for Della and himself. He knew Paul was a big eater and would allow him to order for himself.
"I would like three eggs over easy, three pancakes with butter and heated syrup, three slices of bacon and three sausage patties. Oh, and a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee, black."
Perry and Della smiled at each other. "You are going to eat all that?" Mason asked.
Paul grinned at them. "I am a growing boy."
"At our age, the only growing we do is the belly," Perry quipped.
"Let me worry about that," Paul said.
"You don't seem all that worried that I can see," Della said.
Perry turned the conversation away from Paul's appetite to the business at hand. "I think we have to start with those videos. They had to have been tampered with. Della made a very good observation in that there was no way Schneider and Blaine would have allowed Alexandra Hughes to go into the museum alone. They knew about her seeing Bob and had to have concluded she was betraying them. Her story about her being forced there at gunpoint makes sense."
"Getting a hold of those videos is not going to be easy, Perry. Lieutenant Reese would have picked them up right away. He is not going to just be willing to turn them over to us. They will use them in court against her."
"I am aware of that. We will have to go at it from another angle. I want Kevin Powers checked out. According to Alexandra, he was in on the plot. If we can tie him to the operation, we will have gone a long way proving what she has told us."
"That's a no-go, Perry," Paul said shaking his head.
"Why?" Mason asked.
"Because I checked him out this morning. I knew you would want him thoroughly checked out, so I started with him. He has no record that I can find. He went to the university and studied film, video, you name it. He has aspirations of getting into the motion picture business. He came over from Los Angeles when he left the position at the museum there. They gave him an excellent recommendation. It was with that recommendation he got the job here in San Francisco."
"That doesn't add up," Della said. "Alexandra said, he told her the others would not appear on the video. He wouldn't just decide out of the blue to become a crook."
"He might if the money was good enough," Perry pointed out. "Maybe his career in working with film in Hollywood is not coming fast enough for him."
"Or maybe he is the honest kid he appears to be and your client is not telling the truth," Drake said. Mason was his friend and it was his job to see that was looking at all the possibilities.
Della was shaking her head. No, I think this whole thing was a set-up. She is telling the truth, Paul, I just know it."
"Your theory that she did it doesn't explain why Blaine and Schneider would allow her to go in their alone when she betrayed them to Ironside," Mason countered.
"It would if it was not a betrayal at all. Maybe they knew she was going to do it; to do what she did to Ironside last time, confuse him as to what date they were going to break into the museum. Perry, Carl Reese has Alexandra Hughes casing the museum not once but twice. She even had the nerve to come right up to him and ask where Ironside was."
"None of it makes sense, Paul. That is why we have to start making sense of it. Check deeper into Kevin Powers. There is a connection, I can feel it. Also, we need to find out more about what Howard Jurgens was doing in San Francisco. How did he get in the museum? Find out if there is a connection to Blaine and Schneider."
"Okay, but what are you going to do if you find out she really did do it?" Paul said.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it...if we come to it."
The waitress brought breakfast to them and placed it in front of them. Paul's eyes lit up. "I rarely get to eat anything but hamburgers when working for you." He immediately dug into the very large breakfast before asking Perry and Della, "Did Ben Matlock get in last night."
Della nodded. "Perry and I picked him up at the airport. He is quite the character."
"I would have loved to be there for Ironside's reaction. How did it go?"
"Well," Perry said, "let's see, Ben Matlock tore Bob's paper apart, drank the last drop of coffee in the office and went into the shower ahead of Bob."
Paul grinned and the three of them started laughing.
4
When Ironside finally came out of his bedroom, Ben Matlock was waiting for him. "Do you always get started this late, Chief?"
Ironside wheeled over to the table and glared at the lawyer. "Only when someone wakes me up playing a guitar at five o'clock in the morning, ties up my bathroom and drinks my last cup of coffee."
"I would suggest you only get into trouble when the motels are not full of people, and purchasing more coffee when you know you are going to have company is advisable." Matlock smiled. "Now, can we get down to work. The man from Internal Affairs will be here shortly."
Ironside continued to glare at the lawyer before relenting. "What do you want to know?"
"Did you plan the robbery with Alexandra Hughes?"
"Of course not," the detective snarled.
"Why did you agree to let her go after she told you about the plan to steal the Tiger?" Matlock asked.
"Because she was going to report back to me and let me know when Blaine and Schneider were going to make the move."
"And you believed her?"
"Yes, I did," Ironside said. Irritation was starting to creep into his voice.
"Despite the fact that she had duped you the last time she stole the Tiger?" Ben asked.
"She didn't dupe me," the detective growled.
"What would you call it?"
"She simply made the move a day early."
"But she did know you knew about her interest in astrology?"
"Yes, she knew."
"Then she duped you into thinking she would not make a move until the following day when it agreed with her beliefs in astrology?"
"She didn't dupe me!" Ironside growled.
"Well, shall we say, she outsmarted you then?" Ben pushed.
Ironside remained silent.
"Chief Ironside, when she left that house the last time with the Tiger, why didn't you try to stop her?"
"I would say wheeling my chair in front of her car as it was speeding at me was an attempt to try to stop her," Ironside said.
"But you did not stop her, did you? You moved out of the way, didn't you?"
"I had to move my chair or get run down," Ironside snarled.
"Do you really believe she would have run you down? My understanding is she was in love with you. Would she have killed the man she loved?"
Ironside hesitated before answering, "I don't know, but I was not about to sit there with a two-thousand pound car coming at me to find out."
"You had an affair with this woman?" Ben asked.
One thing Ironside resented was anyone prying into his private life. He had always been intensely private and allowed very few people a glimpse into that part of his life. He only let Eve, Ed and Mark into it to an extent. He certainly did not like this rumpled lawyer asking questions about it."
"Chief?"
"What does that have to do with it?" Ironside gave Matlock a warning look.
Ben could not believe the question. "It has everything to do with it. Internal Affairs is going to say that at the very least you could not be objective where this woman was concerned, and at the worse, they are going to try to bring you into this case as an accessory before the fact. You had an affair with her, allowed her to get away with stealing the Tiger once and then possibly contributed to the theft and murder."
"That is ridiculous!" Ironside shouted.
"Ridiculous or not, that is what Internal Affairs is going to say." Ben assessed his client. The man was gruff, cantankerous and just plain difficult. Defending him was not going to be easy. If it weren't for the fact Perry Mason had asked him to do this, he would probably get on a plane and head back to Atlanta. Ben sat back. "Internal Affairs will be here shortly. You will take your cues from me. I will let you know what, if anything I will allow you to say."
"I have nothing to hide," Ironside said. "Murray Simmons is not going to try to railroad me."
"Obviously, Perry Mason doesn't agree with that assessment or he would not have brought me here. Now, you will do exactly as I say, Chief, is that clear?"
Ironside didn't like being told what to do, especially by this man. He no more looked like a trial lawyer with his rumpled suit and out-of-control demeanor. Why did Perry hire this man?
Ironside did not answer Ben Matlock.
5
Louis Blaine watched as Eli Schneider paced back and forth in the rented apartment they had found. The place was a dump that was furnished with furniture that belonged in the junk. He just wanted to get out of San Francisco. Just how long would Ironside keep the roads blocked off. Furthermore, Eli was getting on his nerves. That infernal pacing was driving him crazy.
"Will you sit down? Do you have to constantly walk back and forth like that." Louis stared at Eli and gave him a threatening look.
"Why don't you relax? There is nothing we can do at the moment. We have to stay here until the heat is off, and that will not happen until Alexandra is convicted of murder. So just relax, will you?"
"How do we know she is going to be convicted. I thought Perry Mason would not be available because Mason would defend his brother against the allegations, but somehow Ironside convinced him to defend Alexandra. I don't like it, Eli. The man is good, too good. Plus we have to worry about Ironside. We already know that man is no dummy."
Eli smiled. "Kevin tells me, Ironside is under Internal Affairs investigation. He can't do anything."
"I have also heard Murray Simmons is in charge. He is a long-time friend of Ironside. Do you really think he is going to do anything to that damn cripple?"
Eli walked over and sat across from Louis. "We have nothing to worry about. Kevin knows a cop, one that hates Ironside. He talked him into going to the mayor and getting on the investigation."
Louis perked up. "Did the mayor put him on it?"
"Well, the mayor can't exactly. But he talked to the city council and they ordered Commissioner Randall to add Detective Sergeant Terry Cox to the team. Of course, it is costing us a small sum.
"How small?" Louis asked.
"A hundred G's."
"You call that small?"
"It is small compared to what we are going to get for the Tiger," Eli said.
"If we ever get anything for it. We have to get out of this damn town first."
"And we will, so stop worrying. Cox will see to it that Ironside is kept out of the investigation." Eli laughed out loud. "You should see the lawyer hired to protect Ironside. The man is a mess! Mason hired some lawyer out of Atlanta, Georgia. He can't be very successful, if his suit is any indication."
Louis felt the knot in his stomach take hold. "Are you saying Mason hired Ben Matlock to represent his brother?"
"Yeah, you should see the guy?" Eli laughed again.
"You fool! Mason just hired a man that is just about as good as he is. Matlock is as big a problem as Mason."
Eli straighten up. "I didn't know. From the looks of him, you would never know he was any good."
Eli's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it, "Yeah." After listening he said, "Thanks for the heads up."
Louis looked at the pale look on Eli's face. "What's wrong now?"
"The cop you shot in the museum, that's what's wrong."
"What do you mean. I shot him in the chest. He's dead," Louis said.
"No, he isn't, he's in San Francisco General Hospital. Detective Cox says he's in a coma, but they think he is going to make it."
Louis stood up. "He can place us in the museum!"
"That's the problem," Eli said.
"Than he has to be silenced and fast, before he wakes up and tells what he saw."
"That is your department. I am not good at that kind of thing," Eli said.
"I'll take care of him tonight," Louis assured him. "He will be dead by midnight.
*Refers to the Ironside episode "Beyond a Shadow."
* Refers to the Ironside episode "Man on the Inside."